..Games: Still on my quest to play all the ‘big’ games of 2009, I've almost got Uncharted 2 wrapped up… only two or three more sections to go. Having already put together a rough list of the year’s top ten, I was wondering which title I might have to bump to make room for it. That concern is now moot, since it's not going to make the list...If nothing else, the production values put pretty much everything else on the market to shame. The graphics are stunning in nearly every scene, and the voice work is excellent. I certainly can't fault it there-- it's the other aspects that fail to impress..Despite the impressive number of showy setpieces that kick the energy level into high gear, there are just as many things that drag it back down. For example, with all the time and energy put into designing the levels, I'm actually surprised that there are as many "where do I go now?" moments as there are. Naughty Dog gets around this by often having an AI partner lead the way, but that's a bit like cheating, if you ask me. They get caught out in areas when main character Drake is alone, and the way to progress is not obvious...At the opposite end of the spectrum, despite the desire to incorporate a bit of tomb raiding, the devs sacrifice complexity (and hence, satisfaction of completion) of jumping/climbing puzzles for the sake of making them pass by quickly. Ostensibly, they don't want players to become bored by being unable to find their way (which didn’t seem to bother them in the land-based areas), but the result was that there was no pleasure in climbing ledges and jumping gaps when there’s precious little fear of falling, and the only correct path is usually quite obvious...The gunfights, by far the worst aspect of the first game, are certainly improved but are still a sore spot. They just drag on for far too long, often throwing wave upon wave of enemy at the player. While something like that might work in a game akin to Gears of War or somesuch, it just feels like filler to me here, and rarely do the fights excite. Nearly every combat situation felt like it lasted about twice as long as it should. Conversely, the stealth aspect of the combat is much improved, and when granted the opportunity, taking enemies out quietly is a much more enjoyable experience than the ‘stop and pop’ that chokes everything up..Uncharted 2 certainly isn't a terrible game, but I think most of the 9’s and 10’s tossed its way are result of reviewers experiencing premature ejaculation due to the graphics and presentation. Although I haven't seen the end quite yet, I can't see much replay value here, and when the shine and polish are stripped away, the core gameplay mechanics aren't strong enough to keep you coming back for more..From what I understand, multiplayer is a very worthwhile experience, but generally preferring the single-player as I do, I'll leave that for others to decide.....TV: The wife and I watched the season finale of White Collar on the USA Network. I've got to say, this is definitely one of my favorite new shows... like I said earlier, there are few points in each episode when you have to turn the brain off for a moment or two for the sake of letting events progress as smoothly and as quickly as they do, but the writers do an excellent job of illustrating the characters while maintaining a perfect balance between levity and seriousness...In addition, I think I have to say that the characters feel very human to me. While one is an FBI agent and one is a convicted criminal, neither is pigeonholed in the stereotypical expectations of their role-- given the circumstances, the agent isn't above bending the rules, and the criminal certainly has his own code of ethics. Despite coming from opposite sides of the law, they each maintain a very convincing level of pragmatism that's not hard at all to relate to. It's nice to see a set of actors that ground their characters in what feels like reality, despite the fantastic situations they find themselves in...The season is over for now, and finished on one hell of a cliffhanger. Thankfully, the show will resume in January, so there's not too long to wait. If you haven't given it a chance yet, I've got nothing but good things to say about it. USA is definitely firing on all cylinders...

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As you may know, I didn't enjoy the first one and was wondering if the plot gets any better than the typical macho/fascist treasure hunt? Is the dialogue as witty as everyone is saying? The predictable good guy/bad guy lines of Drake's Fortune were a complete turn off to me.

I'm curious (and a bit confused) about your comments on the gunfighting aspect, especially in relation to gears. This is primarily a shooter (just like gears), and the gunfighting is the entire focus of the game. everything else you do is secondary. Do you mean to say that the shooting mechanic itself isn't as good as similar titles? I'm not enough of a connoisseur of the genre to argue that point (they all shoot the same to me).

>>As you may know, I didn't enjoy the first one and was wondering if the plot gets any better than the typical macho/fascist treasure hunt? Is the dialogue as witty as everyone is saying? The predictable good guy/bad guy lines of Drake's Fortune were a complete turn off to me.

Hey CKZ,

Although I'd say the plot was better, that's not to say that it's exactly great. I mean, it does its job well enough, but out of the whole game there were really only one or two moments where I felt like it was delivering something above average. There are plenty of silly moments and parts of the story where had to roll my eyes a little bit.

Personally, I think the amount of credit it receives for the characters and dialogue is a little overblown… I mean, it's not bad for an action game, but it's not something you're going to be coming back to for the purpose of revisiting the characters.

If you didn't like the first game, my guess is that there's nothing here that would change your mind about the second.

>>I'm curious (and a bit confused) about your comments on the gunfighting aspect, especially in relation to gears. This is primarily a shooter (just like gears), and the gunfighting is the entire focus of the game. everything else you do is secondary. Do you mean to say that the shooting mechanic itself isn't as good as similar titles? I'm not enough of a connoisseur of the genre to argue that point (they all shoot the same to me).

Hey Mr. H,

In this particular case, I'm not sure that it’s accurate to say that the game is primarily a shooter. With Uncharted 1 that was *absolutely* true, but the developers do mix things up a bit here. it feels like more of a three-way balance between shooting, platforming and cutscenes.

Anyway, to explain my comment, the shooting itself is technically fine. As in, the controls are smooth, I never had any difficulty making the shots I wanted to make, and so on. In that respect, there is no problem.

My issue is that the pace and the quality of the fights themselves are just really off. There is usually twice as many enemies as I would like, and the skirmishes tend to be way too long. at the same time, they don't really get very exciting… I never got into the action, so every time I’d hit a gunfight, my eyes would roll. I definitely tried to stealth as much as humanly possible.

By comparison, I played both Gears 1 and 2, and while I would never hold up either one as an example of a perfect game, they both show a better understanding of the pacing of a firefight, and the kind of level design that really enhances the action. In those games, the shooting was exciting enough and the levels were interesting enough to hold my attention for the duration of each. I felt that only really happened a fraction of the time in Uncharted.